Monday, April 5, 2010

Try not to be too turned off by the sight of a green and yellow pizza?

We have pizza a lot in our house. Well, "pizza", hah, if we can really call it that. We buy an overpriced box of gluten free pizza crusts from the health food store, stow it away in the freezer for Friday or Saturday night when nobody wants to cook (lately, nobody ever wants to cook), and then top it with a homemade cashew "alfredo" sauce, throw on some veggies or chicken, and call it good.

Lately, all I can think about, is tomato sauce. Tomato sauce on noodles, tomato sauce on pizza crust, tomato sauce in a big spoon on its way into my mouth. Sadly, tomato is one of those things on the no-no list for those of us that suffer from fructose malabsorption. Not only that, but my babies can't have it because of their citrus allergies (Eleanore is seeming to grow out of hers, just as Charlie's is worsening).

I'm sick of making an alfredo sauce. The taste has become repetitive and boring, the thought of eating another slice of pizza coated with the stuff makes me lose my appetite altogether.

Also, we're cutting costs. Part of that means... we're done using baking mixes, and we're done buying pre-made anything. I've been avoiding baking from scratch for awhile now, not wanting to put in the extra effort (I'm tiiired), but its gotten to the point where its either we make it from scratch, or we starve.

Fine, fine. I'm up for the challenge. I've got two babies, a growing belly, 9 million food allergies, the never ending need for a nap, but- really... I love it.

My first challenge. Gluten free pizza crust. Usually if I were to make this "from scratch", I'd just use some of Pamela's baking mix and that would be that. But having recently bought a bag of every kind of gluten free flour that I could get my hands on, I decided to roll up my sleeves, put my apron on, and get started. No time to waste.

...would you believe, that on my first attempt, it was the most delicious gluten free pizza crust that I had ever tasted? That's rare. Very rare. For me at least. Even Christopher, through loaded chipmunk cheeks, made a comment about how it was the best pizza he had ever eaten. He says that about everything I make, bless his heart, but somehow this time I think he might have meant it.

I started by preheating my oven as low as it would go, which is 170. I did this so that my dough would have a nice warm place to rise once I was finished making it. I turned the oven off just a few minutes before putting the dough in.

For one large thick pizza, line one cookie sheet with parchment paper. For two thinner crust medium sized pizzas, line two sheets with parchment paper.

Get out two bowls. One large, one medium.

Start making your dough, by mixing all of your flours, sea salt, and xanthan gum, in the large bowl. Gently mix them all together with a whisk, and then set both the whisk and the flour aside.

In medium bowl, mix beaten eggs, lemon juice, oil, and sugar together. After those ingredients have been well combined, add yeast water. Gently mix together with a spoon. The ingredients should come together perfectly, and just barely stick to your fingers. If you're making one large thick pizza, roll dough into one ball, and place in the center of your parchment paper lined cookie sheet. If you're making two medium sized pizzas, split dough in half, and do the same.

I'm not fancy, I don't use fancy tools. I simply dipped my fingers in olive oil (thats why I had you set some aside earlier), and then smoothed the dough out into a pizza crust shape with my finger tips. The end result was perfect. Work slowly, have patience, and your end result will probably be perfect too.

Put into your warm oven, set the timer for 40 minutes, let rise.

After the 40 minutes is up, pull them out, preheat oven to 350, and then bake your crust for 10 minutes.

This recipe is fructose free. For some of you, that means nothing. For the few of you that might have stumbled here from doing a google search, this is beeg time! *keep in mind that with fructose malabsorption, everyone has their own cans and cannots. Zucchini is tolerated by most, but not all. Proceed with caution :)

In order to make a smooth sauce, you'll need either a food processor, or a heavy duty blender (Vita Mix, wootwoot!). If you don't have either of those, try grating your carrot and zucchini? I'd love to know how that turns out.

So. Puree all of your ingredients, minus the salt and pepper. You don't need very much water all, if any. Zucchini holds a lot of water in itself, but if your blender just isn't budging, toss in the right amount of liquid to get things moving.

Cook on medium heat, adding in your salt and pepper as you go, until your sauce turns the shade of green that you're looking for. I think I cooked mine for about 20 minutes.

And then from here... I think you know how to put yourself together a pizza, right? Heehee.

On ours, we sprinkled soy cheese, mushrooms, and black olives (typically I hate black olives, but lately I can't get enough of them).

I've made this pizza crust twice now, and both times, it turned out amazing. I didn't need to add a single drop of liquid, or the slightest sprinkle of flour. We're one happy family.

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comments:

I'm sure it's a pain in the butt, but with all of your food allergies at least your family eats super healthy!I'm not going to lie, that pizza doesn't look too tempting to me since it isn't loaded with gobs of mozzarella and tomato sauce, but I'm so going to give it a try for all of the veggies you've got in there.Thanks!!!

Have you tried pesto or something like olive oil with garlic and other seasonings?? just curious. Next Sunday we are eating with some friends of mine who dont eat gluten and other things. Dinner should be fun and interesting.

I love all the gluten free recipies you post. I have been bothered daily with a bloated belly for years. I recently layed off gluten and have felt so much better. Just as I was missing pizza you posted this, so thank you! I will give it a try :)

That actually looks and sounds good!! When our zucchinis grow, I'm going to try your sauce recipe! I bet it's delicious! I wish my husband would eat olives because after seeing your picture I remember how much I use to love olive and mushroom pizza!

Wow, I'm so intrigued! I don't have any allergies but might try this just for fun. (I was always a sucker for the green ketchup as a kid, so bright green sauce makes me interested. hehe That's weird, huh?)

Wow, I'm so intrigued! I don't have any allergies but might try this just for fun. (I was always a sucker for the green ketchup as a kid, so bright green sauce makes me interested. hehe That's weird, huh?)

Courtney- yes, the eating healthy part is the up side of our allergies, haha. And I know, I know, it looks almost fake, doesn't it? Most allergy free food does, haha.

Beka- I'm so glad we're not the only ones eating weird things :)

Beth- Hahah, I bet you don't fail nearly as bad as you think you do.

Jessie- Pesto has always given me really bad heartburn, so we kind of stay away from it. Good luck with the gluten free dinner you're having with your friends. Are you cooking, or joining them at their house?

Fallon- I've never felt better, since going gluten and fructose free. I can't imagine going back. I know the exact bloat you're talking about though, ick. What have you been making in your kitchen??

Amy- The corn seemed to be kind of a key ingredient in the flavor, but I'm sure you could kick it to the side and replace with other flours, yes. It wouldn't taste exactly like mine, but you wouldn't know the difference since you haven't yet tasted it, heh. Give it a try?

Sarah- I really should plant some zucchini of my own. Let me know if you make the sauce? It turned out so much better than I expected. Next time I think we're going to go cheeseless, and just enjoy the sauce.

Heyasparky- I've never had green ketchup!!

Shannon- Really? It doesn't look funky? After I uploaded the pictures I kind of tilted my head to the side a little and scrunched up my face, thinking "nobody is going to think this looks good other than me", haha. And sure enough, the first comment I got, Courtney had mentioned how it didn't look too tempting, hahahah.

that sounds really good! I don't know if my 14 yr old would be into the green sauce, but I would lol

off topic, have you tried oskri sesame bars? I found them at the grocery store and they are gluten free and lactose free. the ingredients are sesame seeds, date syrup, rice syrup and fennel. they are really good!!